Up-regulation of <i>LINC00161</i> correlates with tumor migration and invasion and poor prognosis of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract

Accumulating evidence suggested that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play essential roles in various biological processes, including tumorigenesis. Aberrant expression of <i>LINC00161</i> has been reported in some cancer types, however, the association of <i>LINC00161</i> and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has not been evaluated. Here, we measured the expression of <i>LINC00161</i> in HCC tissues and corresponding normal liver tissues using real-time PCR. The result showed that the expression level of <i>LINC00161</i> was significantly higher in HCC tissues. Further analysis indicated that HCC patients with higher <i>LINC00161</i> expression have shorter survival. Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that <i>LINC00161</i> expression was an independent prognostic factor for the overall survival. Furthermore, our result indicated that knock-down of <i>LINC00161</i> can significantly inhibit liver cancer cell migration and invasion. The present work indicated that <i>LINC00161</i> might serve as an oncogenic gene and play a pivotal role in promoting tumor migration and invasion in HCC. Our work implicates the promising effect of <i>LINC00161</i> on the prognosis of HCC.